Cowardice, or Something Else?
by leafpaws
Summary: AU events set after Mister Puck. It turns out Jeremie's little phobia of the scanners might not be the only reason he can't go to Lyoko...


"It's pretty simple, Einstein. You have to go to Lyoko."

Still in his gym clothes, exhausted, and with a pounding headache, that was the last thing Jeremie wanted to hear. His mind still felt torn to bits from XANA's invasion of it. "I- what?"

"There's no other way around it!" Odd continued emphatically, "You've never even really, officially gone before. Aren't you at least a little curious? Besides, who knows? Maybe you'll actually be a good fighter there!"

"...He's got a point." Aelita regarded him kindly. "Besides, I could man the Supercomputer while you're in. And if you really don't like it, I could devirtualize you."

They all gazed at him expectantly, and perhaps even with a little bit of excitement. Ever since his encounter with Limbo after Yumi's mistake during his first transfer, they hadn't seemed keen on egging him on to give it a try, but now, it seemed, they had an excuse to do so.

He was sorry to disappoint.

"It's a nice thought, guys, but it's not happening. We need another solution."

At that statement, Aelita frowned, and Odd huffed in exasperation. "I don't get why you're such a coward about this!"

At that, Jeremie narrowed his eyes. Bristling, he repeated, "Coward?"

"Well, yeah! I get it- Yumi screwed up when she tried to transfer you, but you can't just hang on to that forever! It's not gonna happen again, especially when we have Aelita here to do it, so you can't keep using that as an excuse! We all fight there- why can't you even try it?"

"Odd!" Aelita sharply cut in. "That's enough! I'm sure he has his reasons-"

"Fine. Do it." Jeremie interrupted her before she could continue. Startled, she looked his way.

"You don't have to prove anything, Jeremie."

"No. He's right. Send me to Lyoko."

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his track suit, Jeremie pivoted on a heel and made his way straight for the elevator. He jabbed the button for descent roughly. "I'll talk to you when I'm down there."

When the door slowly shut, Aelita exchanged a wary glance with Ulrich and Yumi, for Odd was staring pointedly elsewhere. With little else to say, she turned for the monitor, climbing into the seat adjusted for Jeremie's comfort. She slipped on the ear piece and adjusted the microphone. "Jeremie?"

Yumi, Ulrich, and slowly, Odd joined her around the computer.

"I'm in the scanner. Start it up."

"Are you sure you want to do this...?"

"Sure."

Unconvinced, she began typing. For his sake, she took an extra moment to double check her work before she tapped enter. "I'm starting it. Last chance to back out."

"I don't plan to."

The scanner activated, and she observed the flow of data that began to stream in carefully. "Scanner, Jeremie..."

As she found no flaws, she began to relax. Perhaps Odd hadn't gone about it in the most tactful way possible, but she was relieved that, at the very least, they wouldn't have to worry about possession in their group any longer...

"Transfer-" Abruptly, a new window opened, showing a red exclamation point and drawing a sharp, knowing gasp from Yumi. Several more followed suit, going so far as to obscure her view of the incoming data. Eyes widening, she hastily began to type. "Jeremie! There's a bug- there's, there's a lot of bugs-!"

"I know." His voice was bizarrely calm over the speaker.

Another window, larger than the ones bearing the error symbol, appeared, reading, " _Emergency Shutdown of: Transfer. Error: Insufficient Resources._ "

Quickly, she checked the scanners on the system, noting that none of them showed any signs of activity. "Jeremie? Are you there?"

"Yep. Let me guess- it didn't work, did it?"

As her hammering heart began to settle back down, she glanced towards Odd, who appeared just as stunned. "...You knew it wouldn't, didn't you?" Her tone sharpened. "Thanks for the heart attack!"

"I figured I'd show you _why_ I couldn't go to Lyoko. It's _not_ because I'm afraid- but I'll admit I don't like the idea regardless."

"What _was_ that? And how do I fix it?" Aelita leaned back on the chair, drumming her fingers against the armrest with a furrowed brow.

"I'll come up and explain everything."

* * *

As promised, he returned, regarding an apologetic Odd with a smug- but forgiving- smile.

"So-" Yumi began, "-care to explain?"

Jeremie crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. "Remember when you guys got stuck in that parallel world?"

"Yeah. Well, no- I remember you telling us about it, but I don't remember anything else," Ulrich replied.

At Yumi and Odd's agreeing noises, he nodded. "Right. Well, anyways, when I went to Lyoko to get you guys out of there, XANA was in there too. And when I got thrown back into the real world... Well, it didn't want to let me go so easy. It gave me a parting gift." As he continued, he cast his eyes to the side, tightening his hands around his arms. "It was- a bit painful. In short, it screwed up the individualized coding my file has that's supposed to generate me an avatar. I haven't sorted through the 'how' part yet, mostly because I haven't had time and there hasn't been a need."

Once more, he lifted his gaze. "After I got sent to Limbo, I programmed a failsafe so something like that didn't happen again. The scanner checks and then double-checks for any- and I mean _any_ problems. If it gets odd results, it shuts down the whole process. I can override it, of course, but a lot of the time, I doubt I'd want to before I could fix whatever's wrong."

"...So, what would have happened if you had gone through?" Aelita queried.

Jeremie shrugged. "Who knows? My avatar would have been beyond screwed up. One might not've even been generated for me, leaving the data that's supposed to constitute it to fall into the digital void, or if the Supercomputer did manage to generate one together, it probably would not have been pretty or functional."

She grimaced at the image. "So we literally _can't_ send you to Lyoko. That's going to be a problem now that XANA can possess people. And if it does depend on whether or not a person goes to Lyoko..."

Jeremie pursed his lips and nodded. "Exactly. Which means we either need another solution, or I'm going to end up spending hours going through my code to figure out what's blocking the Supercomputer from processing it."

Aelita considered that statement for a long moment, her expression shifting to something thoughtful. "...Assuming XANA added something to your code, right? Like a virus?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Yeah. How else would XANA...?" Suddenly, contemplatively, he trailed off, considering her words.

She cut to the chase to clear any uncertainties. "Maybe XANA didn't _give_ you anything at all. Maybe it took something away instead. The program you made said that there were insufficient resources-"

"-which could occur with a blockage, too," Jeremie interjected, "But it's definitely worth looking into." He glanced towards Odd, eyes flitting to the other boy's hands, where electrical burns were most visible. "...I really would prefer not getting possessed again."

Ulrich looked Aelita's way. "So if XANA took something off his code or whatever, where would it have put it?"

"Where else?" she answered simply, "Sector Five."


End file.
